Pyongyang may hit US targets in S. Korea if provoked

North
Korea may well fulfil its threat to hit US targets on South Korean
territory if continued pressure by Washington puts Pyongyang at an
impasse, Pavel Zolotarev, a retired Russian Major General, told RT.

“A
US strike against North Korea may go against common logic, but when a
country is governed by propaganda – and the United States are going
through such a period – political decisions go beyond rational
logic, and there we can have consequences that are hard to
foresee,” Zolotarev
warned.

On
Wednesday, US President Donald Trump promised to bring “fire
and fury like the world has never seen” on
North Korea if it doesn’t stop tests aimed at the developing a
nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile. Than the next day he
went even further to say that the “fire
and fury” warning
to North Korea may not have been “tough
enough.”

Increased
pressure from Washington may force the North to “be
more assertive in terms of retaliatory measures,” with
South Korea becoming hostage in this situation, he warned.

“Strikes
may be carried out, targeting either US facilities in South Korea or
the South Korean territory itself,” Zolotarev,
who is the Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian
Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.

“One
shouldn’t forget that the South Korean capital, Seoul, is within
the reach of (North Korean) artillery,” he dded.

The
expert stressed that claims by Korean People’s Army that they have
plans worked out to strike US bases in Guam are“no
bluff.”

“Every
country’s military have to elaborate deployment strategies for any
eventuality. It is politicians – not the military – who decide on
whether or not to use such plans… So, if North Korean military talk
of such plans, it means they actually have them,” he
explained.

If
the armed confrontation between the US and the North eventually
breaks out, the Americans shouldn’t expect it to be a walk in the
park, Zolotarev said.

“The
North Korean military may inflict significant damage to US forces
during a conventional conflict. Though their equipment is far beyond
the American assets, their combat readiness and military morale are
much higher,” he
said.

‘N
Koreans will sell last shirt for ICBM’

No
threats from Washington or even the harshest sanctions will make
Pyongyang abandon its plan to develop its own intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM), Aleksandr Tsalko, a Russian retired Air
Force general, told RT. “[The
North Koreans] will sell the last shirt from their back, but will
make [the missile],” Tsalko
said.

However,
he expressed doubt that Pyongyang currently has the capability to
carry out nuclear strikes against American bases in Guam and
elsewhere if attacked.

“They
claim they have one, but having a long-range missile and being
capable of delivering a nuclear strike are two different things. They
need to make a nuclear warhead that their missile can carry, to learn
how to hit a target with it at long range,” the
co-founder of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies said.

“I
doubt North Korea now has a guidance system good enough for that.
They can make a bang somewhere in the sea, but that’s all,” he dded.

Despite
the US being serious about North Korean claims that it tested an
ICBM, the Russian military insists that its data shows that Pyongyang
only fired a mid-range missile.

The
former general said that while the US is overwhelmingly more powerful
than North Korea, launching an attack at the country would come with
a significant cost for America’s allies in the region, namely South
Korea and Japan.

“However
few short and intermediate-range missiles North Korea has, they are
enough to cause unacceptable amount of damage, if a nuclear warhead
is used,” he
said.

“The
Americans should have enough brains not to do it [attack Pyongyang].
As long as they don’t hurt North Korea, it will not take any action
in return,” Tsalko
said.